Starring Grizzy and Sophie

Starting in March, my goal is to update The Rosie Bee once a week (at least). I work best on a schedule. 🙂

Lots has happened picture-wise since I last posted. Rosie is doing so well, I’m still amazed to think she had surgery last month. She is just my perfect little muffin. I think she is 100% back to her old self. Only now she’s a little more selective about her food, lol.

Lounging with her favorite toy.

I can’t see any scarring! There is simply no hint of her surgery. Isn’t it incredible? Here is a closer view:

Closer view

I love Rosie’s pretty green eyes. I also love that you can clearly see her little sneer. 🙂 She had to have surgery on her mouth (this was before I got her) so her lip sometimes gets caught up like that. It always makes me laugh and want to give her a squeeze. She’s so good!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all have enjoyed a lovely day. I am very glad I made it to (almost) Friday. This week has just been crazy busy. There have been some changes at work – nothing bad, but my workload has definitely increased, leaving me really wiped out this week. Ah, well, job security!

Thankfully, I’ve been coming home to a happy, healing Rosie Bee. She’s doing so well, it’s hard to imagine that she has pretty major surgery just a few weeks ago! I really cannot believe how quickly she bounced back – and how quickly everything changed! No wonder I’m so wiped out, haha.

I’ve been trying to get a snapshot of her tummy, but so far my camera is never around when she rolls on her back. I can tell you that her fur is growing in nicely, all the bruising is gone, and if you look at her you’d be hard-pressed to see she had surgery. It’s really amazing.

Her elbow was shaved for surgery. You can see how nicely (and quickly!) the fur is growing in.

One thing has changed: She is spoiled to no end now, and I think she knows this. Her appetite is back 100%, but she’s become a bit more selective about what she’ll eat! Right after her surgery, her appetite was a little off. To entice her to eat, I got a nice selection of frou-frou food from the pet store. I figured she’d go back to her regular food. Nope! She is definitely the Queen Bee. But I figure as long as it’s good food, I don’t mind giving in. I’m just going to have a keep an eye out for sales. 😉

Yesterday Rosie really was super – she had her sutures and staples removed and she was a champ!

My little Rosie was flipped three ways to get all the stuff out: a “sitting up” position, on the left, then on the right. Dr. Awesome and his assistant, Jess, kept commenting on how calm and nice she was. At one point, during the final third of the removal, Rosie swished her tail a smidge and Jess said, “That was the most polite tail flick I’ve ever seen!”

They also commented on how fast her fur was growing back. I’m just happy her body seems to be healing so well. 🙂

It took quite a while, but there were quite a few staples. I lost count, but I think there were close to two dozen. Rosie and I came home, I gave her some “treat” food and she was out like a light. I felt a little bad for my little Bee – that must have been exhausting for her! But this morning she was back to her normal self, greeting me at 4:30 am for an early morning breakfast.

Dr. Awesome checked her lymph nodes again and said he didn’t feel anything. We’ll have to go back in a bit for X-rays, just so see how she’s doing, but as of right now, she’s tumor-free. I am so happy!

Note: The above picture is from this past weekend when Rosie and I stayed in and watched a movie (“Looper” – really good film, btw!). I’ve really been enjoying staying in more, slowing down a bit, and just enjoying simple things like knitting or reading or watching my cooking shows. If it’s anything this experience has taught me, it’s that slowing down can be a very good thing. (And nothing beats having a purring kitty on your lap while watching tv!)

I can hardly believe it’s been a week (and a day) since my little Rosie Bee has her surgery. She continues to improve – and I am relieved seeing her get back to her old self. Her bruising has gone down considerably and her hair is starting to grow in. (I think this is just too cute – kitty hair grows so fast!) She’s jumping on things a bit more and moving around with ease. I was a little concerned because her “mews” seemed a bit quiet – but today after work she was meowing more like her old self. (“It’s time for dinner, Mom!”)

My other concern was she seemed a bit wheezy, like maybe she had phlegm in her lungs. I called the awesome vet and he said so long as she’s eating and not exhibiting any other signs, it should be okay. Today it was a bit better, but I’m going to keep an eye on that for a while.

The pathology report also came back this week. If you’re so inclined, here is it:

History:Masses on ventrum. Received a 4 cm skin biopsy, 3 cm skin biopsy and 3 X 4 cm tissue.Histopath Report:– Right axillary mass. DESCRIPTION: Effacing nodal architecture is a neoplasm comprised of polygonalcellsarranged in nests and lobules. Cells have distinct borders, moderateamounts of eosinophiliccytoplasm, ovoid nuclei, vesiculate chromatinand prominent nucleoli. There is karyomegaly andanisokaryosis. Mitoses average 2-4/HPF. MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS: RIGHT AXILLARY LYMPHNODE: ADENOCARCINOMA,METASTATIC. PROGNOSIS: Guarded. – Lesion from right ventralthorax. DESCRIPTION: The mammary neoplasm is approximately 0.75 cm in diameter andcomprised ofpolygonal to cuboidal cells similar to those noted in thelymph node. MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS:MAMMARY GLAND ADENOCARCINOMA. PROGNOSIS: Guarded. – Lesion from left ventralabdomen. DESCRIPTION:This section contains a moderately well-delineated, unencapsulatednodulardermal/subcutaneous focus of adipocytes. These cells are insolid sheets and contain nuclei which aresmall, and often peripheralized by abundant cytoplasmic lipid stores. There is aslight variation in size ofthese cells, but cytologic features areotherwise identical to normal adipocytes. Mitoses are not observed.MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS: LIPOMA, SUBCUTIS. PROGNOSIS: Good to excellent.COMMENTS:There is no evidence of malignancy in the sample from the left ventralabdomen. The rightmammary mass appears to have been excisedcompletely with margins of approximately 0.5 cm to eitherside and 0.3cm deeply. If not already performed, thoracic radiographs should beevaluated for evidence ofmetastatic disease.

The awesome vet, I’ll call him Dr. Awesome from now on, lol, said he was hopeful. He didn’t feel anything in her lymph nodes, and he didn’t have any reason to believe it had entered the system – there just weren’t any signs. Maybe it’s there and we can’t see it, maybe it’s not, but this is the tack I am taking: She is free of tumors. She has received a good prognosis for now. She is healing well. Every day with her is a gift. She is getting back to her 100% happy, bouncy, super sweet kitty self and I could not be happier. I’m tearing up just typing that. Every day with her is a gift, and I am cherishing it (and her). And I am spoiling her rotten. I have a feeling rotisserie chicken is going to become a weekly staple in this house! 🙂

We see Dr. Awesome next Tuesday for stitches and staples removal. I’m going to talk with him more then. In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions or advice or anything, I’m all ears.

I tried to get a shot of Rosie’s tummy, but she’s not too keen on rolling over lately. However, you can see that the bruising has gone down considerably and her fur is starting to grow in (yay!). I also thought it was funny how she got her leg up like that! Maybe this weekend we can get some glamour shots. Thank goodness the weekend is almost here!!